


crossroads

by noyabeans (snowdrops)



Series: writing with snowdrops (timeskip arc) [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Growing Up, Missing Scene, POV Second Person, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-22 17:04:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22386316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowdrops/pseuds/noyabeans
Summary: Osamu makes his choice.For as long as you can remember, your life’s always revolved around Atsumu and volleyball.And for as long as your memory serves, Atsumu’s always been the one who loved volleyball a little more.Contains spoilers for the current manga arc, post-chapter 369.
Relationships: Miya Atsumu & Miya Osamu
Series: writing with snowdrops (timeskip arc) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608889
Comments: 9
Kudos: 121





	crossroads

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Tiếng Việt available: [ngã tư](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22407388) by [gorgonlovebot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgonlovebot/pseuds/gorgonlovebot)



> Much of this fic was inspired off the conversations between the twins in **chapter 279** and **chapter 282** , then grounded by the events of the ongoing timeskip arc. If you would so prefer, I recommend reading those chapters before you read this story.

It’s the summer of your third year and you’re seated at your study table, school leaflets strewn all over it. You’ve been looking at them for the better part of the last few months, shoving them into your drawers before Atsumu sees them. It’s been half a year since you realised your road will split from Atsumu’s soon, but it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that you made up your mind where to go, and only a couple of hours ago that you decided you can't keep quiet any longer.

For as long as you can remember, your life’s always revolved around Atsumu and volleyball. And for as long as your memory serves, Atsumu’s always been the one who loved volleyball a little more.

When you were seven years old and learning volleyball for the first time, Atsumu was always the one who insisted on serving one hundred _and one_ serves just to one-up you; you let him win most times or else you’d never make it home for dinner.

When you were ten years old and coach let Atsumu be setter instead of you, he’d been delighted. You were frustrated because he had stolen _your_ role, not because you liked setting, not because it meant he was the better player. That same year, when you both played and lost your first tournament as team starters, he was the one who locked himself in the toilet crying for hours.

When you were fifteen years old and won the middle school tournament, it was Atsumu who couldn’t stop talking about it. Last winter, when Atsumu received the invitation to the youth camp, it was him who’d been upset that you weren’t invited too.

Many people say that Atsumu’s talents shine best because he’s got you. Because he’s got someone by his side who can keep up with and spike his tosses, who isn’t afraid to keep him in line when he’s being too arrogant.

That’s not true, though. You’re not as special as those people make you sound. Atsumu’s nowhere close to being that reliant on you. You’re not the only one who can keep Atsumu in line — just look at Kita-san. And you’re not the only one who can keep up with his tosses, either. That’s what you learnt, half a year ago, when you first saw Hinata Shouyou on the court.

Watching Hinata Shouyou play that day in January showed you as much: you saw how Atsumu looked at him, and you knew that in that small body of a middle blocker lay a hunger that could match your brother’s.

It’s a given by now that Atsumu’s going pro. And he doesn’t know it yet, but you can’t go with him any further. In the months between the Spring High and the recently concluded Inter-high, this is a truth that has grown clearer by the day — Atsumu’s appetite for volleyball has far outgrown yours, and you can no longer keep up with it. It would be unfair for you to go with him onto the pro circuit, unfair to both of you. Atsumu’s too good a setter to be proclaimed as good only by right of his spiker, not on the national stage, not on the world stage. You can’t tie him to your side forever, not when you know he’s destined for flying higher.

Already, letters of offer have started coming in for both of you. The Intercollegiate powerhouses like Tokai, Nippon Sports Science, Juntendo— even Chuo University, the reigning champions, have sent you offers, and you’ve both been invited to tryouts by a number of Division 2 teams. You have opened a fair number of them, given them a cursory read. But there has never been excitement in opening any of them, no exhilaration the same way that Atsumu came barrelling into the bedroom with two envelopes in his hand yelling _"‘Samu, the Chiba Comets are inviting us to their tryouts! If we get in that’s like, basically a ticket to Division 1 since their best players go on to the Rockets!"_

The pamphlet for Osaka Business College sits heavy in your hand. It’s hard, knowing that your paths are about to split. Atsumu will be angry, he will be upset. You already know you will fight, because that’s what you do.

For as long as you can remember, your life’s always revolved around Atsumu and volleyball. Everything will change, from here on out — you will befriend different people, live in different places, do different things, lead different lives. It occurs to you that maybe this is the first time you’re choosing to be one of your own, instead of half of a pair. On hindsight, maybe you’re being a little selfish about how you’re going about it, because this leaves him with no choice at all.

You hear the doorknob turn.

“I’m back,” Atsumu says, and you hear him freeze. What a sight your desk must make, all colourful brochures and school names printed in bold.

They say the first step is the hardest—

“I have something to tell you.”

— this is the first step you will take away from the road you’ve always walked together.

**Author's Note:**

> "Skills-wise, I'm just as good as you. But I think when all is said and done, you love volleyball just a teensy bit more than I do."
> 
> [tumblr (rielity)](https://rielity.tumblr.com/) | [twitter (noyabeans)](https://twitter.com/noyabeans) | [haikyuu writing journal](https://noyabeans.dreamwidth.org/)


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